New Hyderabad airport bans entry of sightseers

Hyderabad, April 1 (IANS) The new international airport at Shamshabad near here has banned the entry of visitors in its premises. “The management of RGIA (Rajiv Gandhi International Airport) thanks all the visitors who have come in the last nine days to witness the world class airport and from today onwards, the airport is open only for passengers and their accompanies who come to either receive or see them off and it is not open for general visitors,” said a statement issued by the RGIA Tuesday.

The move came after hundreds of visitors from different parts of the city thronged the airport to see the swanky facility and the aircraft landings and take-offs. The gathering had put a strain on the amenities at the airport, located 30 km from the city centre, and this was also causing inconvenience to passengers.

According to airport officials, more than 100,000 people came to see the airport Sunday.

For many families it was a sight-seeing trip. The officials had earlier stated that they could not stop the stream of visitors at least for a few days as they were local people emotionally attached to the place. Some of them had given land for the airport, which has come up on 5,000 acres.

The airport authorities announced that they would start collection of parking charges for four- wheelers, two-wheelers and other vehicles from Wednesday. They were not collecting the parking fee since the facility commenced commercial operations March 23.

The statement said parking would be free for first 15 minutes. The parking fee for four-wheelers will be Rs.70 and for two-wheelers Rs.15 for two hours.

The airport has so far handled around 170,000 passengers, of them 27,000 international and 143,000 domestic passengers. The facility has also handled 2,208 air traffic movements.

The RGIA has also handled 140 tonnes of international cargo and 40 tonnes of domestic cargo.